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It was not unusual, way back in the ’70s, for my friends and I to sprawd across a cheap and cheerful sofa from Ikea, the Euro-cool, super-affordable retailer we’d all just discovered, while we listened to punk bands like the Ramones on an apparatus known as a record player and drank inexpensive wine from jam jars.

Since those carefree days, our tastes in furnishing, music and stemware has evolved.

But then, so has Ikea. While still beloved by cash-starved students, the reach of the Swedish retailer extends deep into the design world as its wares sit centre-stage in the homes, cottages and office of well-heeled designers and home-fashion editors across the globe.

As I learned on a media trip to the company’s operations in Älmhult, Sweden this past April, the ability to understand what consumers consider affordable will change over their lifetime. It has fuelled growth for Ikea, which now has some 338 stores in 40 countries.

Asked about why modern Swedish décor seems to have such consistent global appeal, project manager Peter Klinkert suggests that Swedes have by necessity learned to balance form and function, the two fundamentals of great design.

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“There is no history of richness and resources in Sweden,” he says. “People lived with limited means and learned to do things based on what they have. We do a lot with a little.

“At the same time, we have to make it cosy because half of the year, when it’s cold and dark, we will be inside all the time.So we want to make it comfortable and beautiful.”

During the trip, a small group of editors, writers and celebrity designers got a sneak peak at the latest iteration of Ikea’s Stockholm collection, targeted at consumers looking for well-designed and good-quality furnishing and décor that doesn’t come with upper-stratosphere price tags.

The design brief for the collection rests, as do all Ikea collections, on five principles — form, function, quality, price, and sustainability. But with the Stockholm collection, which is rolling out in stores now, the company “amplifies” quality, according to Klinkert.

Quality is manifested in beautiful organic materials, such as walnut veneers, bone china and wool carpets. Good design is evidenced even in the details; for example, the line of the arms of walnut veneer dining chairs ($149) follow the slope of a matching table ($699) so that they can be tucked tidily away.

Shapes, colours and motifs are often inspired by the outdoor environment — a hallmark of Swedish design. Throughout the line, there are leafy patterns on high-back chairs ($499), lots of soft curves and playful references to the elements, such as the chandelier (in ABS plastic) with spokes that radiate from a central fixture and suggest sparkling water droplets ($129).

While tones tend toward the earthy, there’s a sofa ($1,099) in a fresh fern green and a swivel chair ($349), which also comes in a sunny yellow.

It’s not part of the Stockholm collection, but fans of classic Ikea forms will also be glad to hear that the Lövet (leaf) side table, designed in 1956, has been reincarnated as Lövbacken ($69).

I saw an original in the Ikea Tillsammans museum, where I also learned about Ikea’s rise from lowly beginnings to a global retail behemoth. For more on that, go to thestar.blogs.com/onthehouse

Klinkert points out that there are challenges in creating a high-design line that’s affordable “for the many,” a phrase Ikea uses to describe its approach to mass design.

But one way is to get everyone involved early on.

“We always have our suppliers involved in these discussions from the start. We go with designers to factories to see how it can be industrialized in the best possible way,” he says.

More from Vicky Sanderson at thestar.blogs/com/onthehouse. Also the editor for Reno and Decor magazine, Vicky is on Twitter: @vickysanderson or email vswriter@sympatico.ca .

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